The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-12-24

- ~ u lew chOht " Aio
own roof then he, too, was called to his
account, and with widows pension and
the relic of her fathers savings the sorrow
ing woman moved from the garrison that
had so long been her home, and took mp
arms against her sea of troubles. She need
not have gone. All Fort Rains knew that
there were officers who would gladly have
taken her and her beautiful children to their
freside. But she was loyal, proud, high
spirited, and she could not stay. All the
roof her father had to leave her was the
frame cottage at the ranch he had bought
and stocked, mile below the fort. She
was soldiers daughter, brave and resolute,
she had her fathers old soldier-servant and
his wife to help her, and she moved to the
ranch, and declared she would be dependent
on no one. When first she had come into
that glorious valley, girl Of eighteen,
large force of cavalry was encamped around
the garrison in which her fathers regiment
of foot was stationed, and Captain Harold
Ransom became one of her most devoted
admirers, though nearly twice her age.
Few men had much chance against such
lover as Phil Carleton, buoyant, brilliant,
gallant, the pride of all the juniors in the
infantry, the despair of many prudent
mother, and when that engagement was
announced, the cavalry were rather glad to
be ordered away, and to comfort themselves
with the perilous distractions of Indian
fighting for three or four stirring years.
But, before they left, Ransom and others
had bought much of the land on which
Argentopolis cleaned to-day. Perhaps it
was the silver that came into his hair as
well as his pockets, but silver did not cause
the lines that crept under his kindly eyes
and around the corners of the firm mouth.
He was rich, as army men 90, but his heart
was sorely wrenched. He went abroad
when the Indian campaigns were over, and
rejoined while his comrades were on the
Pacific coast, and became the delight of the
children and the children's mothers Capt
Santa Claus they called him at Walla Walla
and Vancouver, where he was the life of
those garrisons and while men honored
and women waxed sentimental toward him,
it was the children who took possession of
the tall soldier and made his house their
home, who trooped unbidden all over it at
any hour of the day, and made it the gar
rison playground when the rainy season set
in and drove them to cover
And then, after their four years in the
Columbia country, the regiment crossed the
big range, and, wonder of wonders, head
quarters and six troops, one of them Ran
SONS, were ordered to Fort Rains He
was again on long leave when the change
of station occurred, and the widow drew
long breath. She found life very different
with her fathers old friends and hers re-
moved. As the children grew in years
their needs increased. She sold the stock
and much Of the land of the ranch, keeping
only the homestead and the patch around
it, but she was glad to find employment at
the fort as teacher of the piano and singing.
She played well, but her voice was glorious,
and had been carefully trained, The news
that he was coming had given her shock.
1t was more than eight years since she had
seen him. 1t was more than five since she
had briefly answered the letter he wrote her
on hearing of her husbands death. 1t was
so manly, sympathetic. and so full of some
thing he knew not how to express Ia long
ing to shield her from want or care. She
had gently but firmly ended it all,
And yet-she was bitterly poor now.
Handsomer than ever, said the officers who
knew her in the old days; still wearing her
mourning, and looking so tall and majestic
in her rusting weeds. She was a woman
whose form and carriage would be noticeable
anywhere-tall, slender, graceful, with a
certain slow, languorous ease of motion that
charmed the senses. Her face was exqui- !
site in contour and feature-a pure type of
blond, blue-eyed, Saxon beauty, with great
masses of shimmering golden brown hair.
No wonder Ransom felt thrill when he
looked into Maudie's eyes-the child was
her mother in miniature. Attwenty-seyen,
with all her trials, Mrs Carleton was
lovelier woman than in her maiden radiance
at eighteen. What she had gained in
strength and character, through her years
of poverty and self.ahpegatiol, God alone
knew, and He had been her comforter.
For nearly a year the garrison children
had been going in to town for school, an
excellent teacher having been secured in
the East, and Mrs. Carleton eagerly en-
braced the chance of sending hers. She
could no longer afford nurse to look after
the wee one She could not take her on
her daily round Of lessons, and her infantry
friends had gladly soel to-t that the little
Carletons were carried to aud fro with their
own. So, too, when the cavalry came had
Colonel Cross assured her that the ambu-
lance should always come for them and
bring them back to the post. Everybody
wanted to be kind to her, or said so at least;
but the ladies were all new and strange
She had never beea the pet among them
she was in her own regiment. They had
not known and loved her father, as had the
Colonel They had heard of handsome
Phil Carleton, as who had not but they
had heard of Hal Ransoms old-time deyo-
ton to her, and now he would soon be back.
Rich, growing gray, everybody's friend, the
chiIdrep's idol-oh, what if she should set